Tasmanian hospitality industry’s fight for survival amid COVID-19 crisis

Tasmanian restaurateurs have been left reeling from Premier Peter Gutwein’s warning for people to stay home.

TASMANIAN restaurants are revamping their business models in a desperate bid to keep staff employed amid the COVID-19 crisis.

It was a challenging day for the industry yesterday, with restaurateurs reeling from Premier Peter Gutwein’s warning for people to stay home.

Many venue owners have spent the past week rearranging dining rooms, overhauling hygiene practices and implementing take-aways and online ordering.

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Tasmanian Hospitality Association chief Steve Old said businesses needed immediate cash support in the wake of Mr Gutwein’s advice, which effectively warned the public to keep away.

Steve Old. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

“If the government has advice that businesses are going to have to close in the future, why don’t we do it now if it will lessen the period of exposure and bring our industry and economy back on line quicker?” Mr Old said. “What we don’t want is a slow strangulation of the industry.”

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Some help was granted last night, with the Commonwealth announcing that, from April 21, small and medium businesses can keep 100 per cent of the tax they withhold from their employees’ wages, up to $100,000.

However, Mr Old said: “Incentives that relate to future savings on payroll tax or the like are pointless if the industry is shut down”.

“If businesses are to be shut, there needs to be a strong package to compensate businesses and employees to get through this and re-emerge at the end,” he said.

In Hobart, restaurateurs Carl Windsor (Ettie’s and Willing Bros. Wine Merchants) and Kif Weber (Suzie Lucks) have been pulling out all stops to find ways to keep staff at work and money flowing through to local suppliers.

“We’ll stay open as long as people keep coming in and we’re making enough to cover costs, but if they’re not coming in we’ll obviously have to reassess,” Mr Windsor said.

Carl Windsor. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

As well as takeaway and cook-at-home dinner packs from both of his restaurants, Mr Windsor has started a “hospitality soup kitchen” at Willing Bros., providing struggling workers with five-dollar meals and camaraderie.

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He has also been working the phones to find alternate work for his staff.

“I’ve been calling winemakers and vineyard owners because they’ve got fruit that needs to come off and they don’t have the backpackers coming in,” Mr Windsor said. “Hopefully we can all help each other.”

Co-owner of Launceston’s Stillwater and Black Cow restaurants Bianca Welsh has also secured picking work for some workers and introduced take-away and online ordering in an effort to stay viable.

She said customers had been so supportive of the changes that businesses may keep up the fine-dining takeaways “post-COVID”.

“It’s reshaping the industry,” Ms Welsh said.

Mr Weber said he had scaled back the Suzie Luck’s drinks list to Tasmanian-only wine and beer “to keep the cash in the community”.

“It’s not just my family that’s affected by this, it’s all the guys who supply to restaurants,” Mr Weber said.

Mr Windsor said support from customers was about “paying it forward to keep your favourite restaurants open”.